Altered landscapes, shifting strategies: The politics of location in the constitution of gender, belief, and identity among Samburu pastoralists in northern Kenya.

Abstract

The dissertation examines several of the ways in which the places Samburu pastoralists of northern Kenya inhabit structure their identities in the context of historical and contemporary social change. Central to this discussion of Samburu places and identities is the evolution of fixed town centers that made their appearance in Samburu District during the British colonial period. The dissertation examines the importance of the construction of mission, trade, and administrative centers to the (re)configuration of Samburu identities in the colonial period and the ways in which these centers continued (in the period of fieldwork) to be integral to a complete understanding of changing Samburu identities. The dissertation is based on quantitative and qualitative fieldwork methods employed (1992-94) in three lowland Samburu communities selected based on their proximity to centers of trade, Christian mission, administration, and development. A time allocation survey was conducted in all three communities over the course of a year, and a variety of other surveys were conducted to elicit residence, formal education, and employment histories, as well as Christian mission and church involvement and development project participation. Qualitative methods employed include partial life histories and structured and unstructured interviews on religion, prophets, adornment, beads, work, education, the dispute process, and other topics relevant to the project's themes. Participation observation methods were used throughout the project period, and extensive archival research was conducted to supplement the oral history information obtained during the interview process. Drawing on recent scholarship on issues of identity and ethnicity among East African pastoralist peoples, the dissertation employs a variety of theoretical lenses to develop the notion of border identities constructed through place and practice, against which other Samburu identify themselves. In particular, the study draws attention to contemporary Samburu emic distinctions between Samburu living in rural areas and those whose cultural position is made precarious by their residence in towns. It is suggested that Samburu of the town occupy a position at the margins of Samburu society even as the features of that anomalous, hybrid identity provide useful tools for the reconstitution of Samburu identities generally, in the context of contemporary socioeconomic change.